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Bookshelves and the books that go on them obviously hold a special place in our hearts so when we came across this animation by Canadian husband and wife team Sean & Lisa Ohlenkamp we were very excited. The Joy of Books really is a joy to watch as the contents of Toronto bookstore, Type come alive after dark.

The couple decided to take on this feat after making a video of them organising their home bookshelf almost a year ago in the animation Organising The Bookcase. The post on Youtube was accompanied by the words: "This weekend we decided to organise the bookcase. It got a little out of hand." Watch the video below.

The Joy of Books, which features Phaidon's Masters of Cinema: Tim Burton and A Day at elBulli, took the couple four, 16-hour-long nights to shoot, using 20 volunteer book shelf stackers each night. "Since we couldn't film during store hours, we had to wait until Type was closed," Sean Ohlenkamp tells Phaidon. "So, from 6pm until 10 am we moved, stacked, sorted, shelved, and reshelved books. Then we did it the next night. And another night. And another night! Four nights in all."

Organising the Bookcase "was a very quick and dirty project and we thought we could do better so we decided to pick up our game a little bit. In coming up with the animation sequence [for The Joy of Books], there was definitely some trial and error. I drew up pages of ideas ahead of time but we only ended up animating about two thirds of them - both because we found some ideas just not feasible and also because we just ran out of time!"

And on the idea for the duo's next project Ohlenkamp says "no, I haven't approached the Library of Congress yet. I think I'll probably take a break for a while. Maybe just sit back and read a good book."

Phaidon is the premier global publisher of the creative arts with over 1,500 titles in print. We work with the world's most influential artists, chefs, writers and thinkers to produce innovative books on art, photography, design, architecture, fashion, food and travel, and illustrated books for children. Phaidon is headquartered in London and New York City.Read more